Ad-hoc virtual communities for rehabilitation exercising

International audienceSome patients may have to stay at home, however they may need also some rehabilitation exercises. Sometimes this is not possible due to several constraints: distance, cost, availability, etc. Traditionally, rehabilitation sessions are performed individually or in groups in the same place. Studies have shown that group sessions can lead to better motivation and results. In this paper, we propose a system that allows rehabilitation sessions, within a distributed group of people, under the computer-assisted supervision of a coach. The system makes use of wearable technologies, web applications and pervasive computing. Group awareness and self-awareness are enhanced for better motivation and results

Instrumental support in the physical activity community - premilinary results

Currently, we witness the growth of ICT-mediated solutions for chronic diseases management, especially to assist and support patients in lifestyle changes in order to improve their health condition. Being physically active is one the recommended lifestyle changes for patients with chronic diseases. The challenge within those ICT-mediated solutions for physical activity support is to allow patients to manage themselves their physical activity level (PAL) and provide them with the needed social support. One of those solutions available is the use of Virtual Community (VC)

La filière tomate de transformation à Haouaria en Tunisie : prédominance de la forme industrielle déterritorialisée

En Tunisie, la filière tomate de transformation joue un rôle majeur dans le développement socio-économique local de certains territoires. La plaine de Haouaria, région historiquement spécialisée dans cette production industrielle, connaît depuis les années 2010 un processus de déterritorialisation se traduisant en amont par une plus grande vulnérabilité des agriculteurs. L’objectif de cet article est de présenter les variables explicatives de ce processus. Pour ce faire, nous avons mobilisé le cadre conceptuel de l’approche filière. Notre démarche méthodologique s’est appuyée sur une recherche bibliographique et documentaire, des enquêtes de terrain auprès d’agriculteurs et de consommateurs, des entretiens avec les acteurs institutionnels et les industriels et enfin des focus groupes avec différentes parties prenantes de la filière. L’article analyse la structure et les mécanismes de régulation de la filière et estime le poids du territoire dans son développement. Nos résultats montrent que la structure de cette filière est dominée par la forme industrielle, avec des entreprises dont la production est peu diversifiée et est constituée principalement de double concentré de tomate, produit de base du modèle de consommation alimentaire tunisien. Cette structure se caractérise par une forte asymétrie de pouvoir ainsi qu’une répartition inégale de la valeur entre les acteurs économiques de la filière. Des mécanismes de régulations ont été développés par les acteurs économiques et l’État afin de s’adapter à diverses contraintes internes en amont, telles que la baisse de disponibilité en eau et la saturation du marché. Cette reconfiguration se traduit par une forte dépendance de cette filière à d’autres régions pour son développement. Finalement, il apparaît que la déterritorialisation de cette filière résulte des régulations internes et externes, alors que les actions de territorialisation (diversification des produits, reconnaissance par des dispositifs de labellisation, etc.) restent timides et ont du mal à se structurer

"Patron-driven acquisitions": la biblioteca propone y el lector dispone

Reseña de: Esposito, Joseph J.; Walker, Kizer; Ehling, Terry. PDA and the university press. A report prepared for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. [Baltimore, Md]: The Johns Hopkins University Press; [Ithaca, N.Y.]: Cornell University Library, Sept. 26th 2012. 65 p. Documento de trabajo disponible en línea en: . [Consulta: 10 de mayo de 2013]

Exploratory study of a virtual community for physical activity

Physical inactivity is increasingly becoming part of today’s lifestyle, leading to a rapid increase in the incidence of diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. These chronic diseases are, for the most part, preventable by adopting a healthy lifestyle including regular physical activity. To help people maintain appropriate physical activity levels, researchers are developing interventions based on concepts from social science and ICT solutions. In this line, we investigate virtual communities (or social networks) as a candidate solution to support people in achieving their daily physical activity goals. This study observes and explores the differences between using the virtual community and a physical activity monitoring system on the physical activity level. We designed an exploratory study with a duration of 9 weeks in which an intervention group used a virtual community with a physical activity monitoring system and a control group used only a physical activity monitoring system. The results of this exploratory study demonstrate that using virtual communities may motivate and support people in their daily physical activity; in particular, we observed a decrease in the use of the system later than was observed in previous studies. Future investigations are needed to confirm the effect of the virtual community on physical activity

Towards physical activity support community

Nowadays it is recognized that physical activity, besides other lifestyles, has indisputable beneficial affects on cardiovascular diseases prevention and treatment. Additionally the social support is important and has a valuable impact on the outcomes in cardiovascular disease patients. To provide the patients the social support needed and, to support and motivate them in their daily physical activity, we are working on building a mobile virtual community for physical activity support connected to a triaxial accelerometer, where the physical activity will be monitored and the main objective will be to motivate and support the patients to be adequately physically active. In this paper, the main functionalities supported by the community are discussed and the instrumental support is also investigated and metrics, based on the IMA metric, are proposed

TogetherActive - key concepts and usability study

Despite the well-known benefits of physical activity on health, the recommended level of physical activity is not reached by everyone. Many interventions are aimed at reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity. As an intervention, we developed a virtual community system, TogetherActive, aiming at providing the social support to people in their daily life. Typically, virtual communities provide emotional and/or informational support, but our contribution aims mainly the instrumental and appraisal support. The community is coupled with physical activity sensor. In this system we focused on concepts such as individual and group goals, comparison, competition and cooperation in order to increase motivation to meet the daily recommended physical activity level. In this paper presents the design and the key concepts of the TogetherActive system, its implementation and the usability study

Physical activity support community togetheractive - architecture, implementation and evaluation

Reducing sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity is getting an increased attention of researchers and health organizations due to its significant benefits on health. In the same direction we are proposing a virtual community system, TogetherActive, which supports people in their daily physical activity. The community is connected to physical activity sensors and provide social support (informational, emotional, instrumental and appraisal supports). In order to increase motivation, individual and group goals, comparison, competition and cooperation are the key concepts considered in the system. This paper presents the design, implementation and usability evaluation of the TogetherActive system